AFRL Tests Ursa Major’s Draper Liquid Fuel Rocket Engine
Ursa Major’s Draper liquid fuel rocket engine, which aims at a lower maintenance burden, was tested onboard AFRL’s Affordable Rapid Missile Demonstrator.
afrl News
Air
Weapon / Missile
Engine and Transmission
Unmanned Systems
US Air Force Tests Long Endurance ISR UAVs
The US Air Force tested ULTRA UAVs for long-endurance ISR missions. The force might allocate $35 million for four of these systems in the 2025 budget.
Weapon / Missile
AFRL Eyes Reusable Hypersonic Technologies
With the conclusion on AGM-183A ARRW rocket-boosted hypersonic glide weapon, AFRL is eyeing reusable hypersonic technologies for the 2030s.
Unmanned Systems
General Atomics Reveals XQ-67A UCAV
As part of the USAF’s Off-board Sensing Station programme (OBSS), General Atomics (GA-ASI) has developed a new jet-powered UCAV named XQ-67A.
Unmanned Systems
Simulator / AI / Drill/ Software
The XQ-58A Valkyrie Conducts AI-Controlled Flight
AFRL wrote that XQ-58A Valkyrie UAV successfully carried out the first flight controlled by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Air
Weapon / Missile
AFRL Completes Flight Tests for Laser Beam Director
The AFRL completed a flight-test campaign for a new beam director concept with directed energy laser systems integrated onto Falcon 10 aircraft.
Air
Simulator / AI / Drill/ Software
Unmanned Systems
The X-62 VISTA completed its first flight
The X-62 VISTA has performed its maiden flight, ahead of its use by the USAF for manned-unmanned teaming aircraft operations.
Weapon / Missile
Lockheed Martin Delivers Laser System LANCE to US Air Force
USAF has received a high-energy laser weapon that can be carried by aircraft in a podded form from Lockheed Martin.
Ammunition
Sensors
The US Introduces New Radar Seeker Kit Against Naval Targets
The US Air Force introduced a new kit for general-purpose bombs to sink enemy vessels by employing a seeker-fitted Joint Direct Attack Munition, QUICKSINK.
Air
Unmanned Systems
Drone Launched another Drone
The USAF announced that the Valkyrie UAV launched another drone. The AFRL conducted its sixth test of the XQ-58A Valkyrie drone on March 26th.
Global Defence Trend Brief
- 09:00 NATO pushes allies to fill US air and naval capability gaps - Washington is pressing European allies and Canada to provide more manned and unmanned aircraft plus...
- 09:00 AI-driven drone swarms rise as a new NATO planning priority - NATO officials are warning that AI-enabled drone swarms could reshape warfare within five years, pus...
- 09:00 Counter-drone demand expands beyond battlefields into critical infrastructure - Growing drone incursions around airports, ports, oil facilities and data centres are accelerating de...
- 09:00 Europe’s loyal wingman race becomes a core airpower trend - Collaborative combat aircraft took centre stage at Berlin Airshow 2026 as European companies and air...
- 09:00 Ukraine’s drone combat know-how is becoming an export asset in Asia - Ukrainian drone firms are marketing battlefield-proven systems and swarm concepts in Japan, Taiwan a...
- 09:00 NATO accelerates live testing of counter-drone technologies - Alliance members and industry partners are expanding field trials of drone detection and interceptio...
- 09:00 Hypersonic threats keep driving demand for persistent tracking networks - The spread of hypersonic weapons continues to push Western defence planners toward integrated radar...
- 09:00 Military space resilience shifts toward larger distributed constellations - Armed forces are increasingly favouring proliferated satellite constellations over a small number of...
- 09:00 Autonomous maritime systems gain importance in surveillance and strike planning - Navies are broadening interest in autonomous surface and underwater systems for persistent ISR, infr...
- 09:00 Industrial surge capacity is becoming a decisive defence metric - Across missiles, drones and air defence, governments are placing more weight on production scalabili...
